She’s alive. Calling my name.
I let go, shoving his collapsed body into the dirt.
Rio plants his boot on Mike’s throat.
I run so fast, I nearly slide off the edge of the cliff, but I quickly drop to my stomach.
And there she is.
She’s perched on a ledge just wide enough for her boots, bound wrists caught on a root jutting from the stone. One wrong shift. One crumble of dirt…and she’ll fall.
She lifts her face toward me. Those big, brave eyes find mine, and my entire damn world breaks open.
I reach my hand toward her, but the ground under me shifts, loose gravel sliding down in a cascade. Pebbles rain past her, tapping her shoulders, bouncing off her feet.
If I move again, I could kill her. I glance around the area, hoping, praying there is some way to shimmy down, to gather her in my arms and pull her up from the gaping hole in the earth that threatens to swallow her.
There’s no way down where I could also bring her up.
The helplessness hits like a sledgehammer. I’m right here. Inches away. And I can’t reach her. If she falls now, all I’ll be able to do is watch.
Raw pain sears through me.
“We got you, Freya,” I say, my voice not as steady as I’d like. I’ve never had this much emotion tearing through me. “Gabriel is coming with equipment. Callum is coming. Just a few more minutes.”
Please hang on.
She holds herself together. “I’m okay. I have a good grip on the ledge.”
But a tear slips down her cheek.
She’s staying strong for me. For our baby. And she is so fucking fierce, I almost crumble under the weight of my love for her.
She’s fighting forus.
So I fight for us, too. I’ll be her anchor, her voice, her strength when hers wavers.
“Look at what you did, honey.” I school my voice into calm. “You caught a goddamn serial killer. Hell of a first year with a badge.”
A tiny sob breaks out of her—surprise, relief, disbelief tangled into one sharp sound.
I keep talking. It’s all I can do. She’s in pain, terrified, hanging on by will alone with our baby in her belly.
“You got justice for Zoe,” I continue, encouraging her, hoping my words fill her with strength, “and every woman nobody came looking for.”
She laughs nervously. Every bit of her fear runs straight into me.
“You saved yourself,” I say, my voice breaking, “and you saved our baby.”
But then she shifts. Pebbles slide beneath her boots. I jerk forward, instinct screaming to grab her, but I freeze before I make anything worse.
It fucking destroys me that she’s down there, my hands inches away, and I can’t touch her.
Then, sirens wail in the distance.
“Do you hear that, honey?” I say, fighting for control as my breath stutters. “Just keep looking at me. Stay with me. You got this.”
She nods quickly, a broken, trembling motion. “Yeah. I got this,” but she’s convincing herself of something she doesn’t believe.
